Battle of Novara (1513)

The Battle of Novara (6 June 1513) was a battle of the War of the League of Cambrai that was fought between Louis de la Tremoille's French army and the Milanese-Swiss army of Duke Maximilian Sforza. The Swiss inflicted a harsh defeat upon the French, and they proceeded to massacre several captured landsknechts due to rivalries between the German landsknechts and the Swiss Pikemen.

In 1512, the French army was victorious at the Battle of Ravenna, but King Louis XII of France was driven out of Milan by the Swiss mercenaries hired by the Sforza family. Duke Maximilian Sforza was installed as duke by the Swiss on 29 December 1512, and the French general Louis de la Tremoille was sent with 20,000+ troops to besiege the city of Novara, held by Swiss mercenaries. The French were ambushed by a Swiss relief army and, although the French landsknechts and cannon inflicted significant losses on the Swiss soldiers, the Swiss managed to assault the French camp from all sides. The French artillery was taken by the Swiss troops, and the Swiss destroyed the landsknecht pike squares. The French heavy cavalry was unable to deploy, fled the field, and left the baggage train to the Swiss. After the battle, hundreds of captured Landsknecht mercenaries were massacred by the Swiss, but the Swiss army's lack of cavalry prevented them from pursuing the retreating French forces. Two years later, this would come back to haunt them at the Battle of Marignano.